Vernon Hills' District 73 debates ending school choice

Some elementary schools didn't meet required annual progress

District 73 School Board President Tim Shanahan, left, and Superintendent Nick Brown discuss school choice at a meeting Monday. (Michael Holtz, Chicago Tribune)

School choice may soon be mostly a thing of the past in Vernon Hills, where Hawthorn School District 73 officials are debating a proposal that calls for a gradual return to neighborhood schools.

The proposal was unveiled Monday at a crowded school board meeting. Nearly 100 parents and teachers filled the boardroom. After months of discussion, attendees said they wanted to hear the much-anticipated plan for themselves.

Officials say the change is designed to help District 73 better comply with federal education guidelines outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act. The district fell into trouble after three of its four elementary schools failed to meet adequate yearly progress standards, or AYP, for the second year in a row.

As a result, the district risks losing $300,000 in Title I funds if it does not change its school choice policies. It's a problem the plan released Monday was designed to fix.

"It's a reality that the time has come to change this," said board President Tim Shanahan. "We can't do nothing."

Complicating things is a provision in the federal law that prevents districts from turning down students who want to transfer to a school that's meeting AYP. They can't even deny transfers because of a lack of space or class-size restrictions.

In District 73, Aspen Elementary is the only eligible school meeting AYP. That means it's the only option for parents who want to transfer their children.

But as a choice school, Aspen caps its enrollment. It's a restriction the district will have to eliminate next year to allow unlimited transfers. Failing to do so puts the district at risk of losing its Title 1 funding. The proposed restructuring — which was recommended by a joint committee of about 30 parents, teachers, administrators and district officials — has two key parts to address the AYP issue in both the short and long terms.

First, the committee proposed moving the preschool and kindergarten classrooms out of Aspen and into another building to make room for transferring students. Superintendent Nick Brown estimates that the school will need an additional seven classrooms to accommodate the new students.

As for a long-term solution, the committee recommended reorganizing the district's four AYP-eligible elementary schools — including its two choice schools — into neighborhood schools beginning in the 2014-15 school year. Under its proposal, the School of Dual Language, which is not bound by AYP, would be the only choice school kept intact.

The plan includes a grandfather clause that would allow students currently enrolled at a school to stay there. But the details of how the provision would work remain undecided.

David Sternfield, a district parent and committee member, said the primary issue parents were concerned with was the school choice system rather than AYP. He said the current system leads to a kind of "pecking order" among parents, one that was based on where they decided to send their children to school.

Board member Michelle Comitor echoed Stenfield's remarks. She said that opposition to the proposed restructuring was based on a desire to avoid change, not on a desire to protect school choice.

In fact, Comitor added, many parents have told her that they didn't want the pressure of having to choose their children's school. She said most would be happy sending them to a predetermined neighborhood school.

"I guarantee you that 10 years from now, you're going to have parents that are going to be thrilled that they don't have to sit there and go, 'Well what do I do?'" she said. "They're going to love whatever they do. I have never met a parent who said, 'I don't love my kid's school."

The board plans to make a final decision on the proposed plan at its next meeting on April 22.

Three new board members elected Tuesday are scheduled to take their seats at the board's first meeting in May. Louis Gatta, Jeanne Engelkemeir and Ghita Mueller came ahead of Sangita Parande for the open spots, according to unofficial vote totals.